We’ve written here before about the amazing art created out of rice paddies in Japan. But the grain’s artistic potential doesn’t end there.

Harvested rice produces tons of excess straw–so much, in fact, that the Japanese now transform this farm fodder into glorious works of art. Each fall, Kagawa Prefecture and Niigata Prefecture host “straw art festivals” where artists construct sharks, wooly mammoths, and even whales out of hay. The sculptures are massive: significantly larger than their real-life counterparts. Which makes some of them both very cool and very scary. Just see that little girl fleeing the clutches of a giant straw gorilla. On the other hand, a chill shiba inu has no problem hanging in a giant sphinx. See the creations in the gallery above.